While I don't think this California school system is attempting to indoctrinate kids into Hinduism, I do think it's possible and even probable that they're promoting one religion over another.

It seems like you could take the positive or secular components from any particular exercise program and leave behind all that is spiritual. And it seems that if you wanted to have this program in a school, the educators would go out of their way to insure the program was free from any statement of faith. But maybe not, maybe the physical aspects are too tied into the mental to be able to separate them out and still have an effective wellness program using yoga???

At any rate this particular town didn't seem too concerned about secularizing their in-school yoga program. Not only that but the program is being funded by the KP Jois Foundation (KP Jois was the founder of the american Ashtanga style of Yoga)

It seems like you could take the positive or secular components from any particular exercise program and leave behind all that is spiritual. And it seems that if you wanted to have this program in a school, the educators would go out of their way to insure the program was free from any statement of faith. But maybe not, maybe the physical aspects are too tied into the mental to be able to separate them out and still have an effective wellness program using yoga???

I agree that the spiritual stuff can and should be left out. The concepts of life flows or spirit and whatnot are entirely based on faith and have no scientific backing.

P90X, when I was doing it, had a yoga workout on one of the days; it was probably the hardest workout in my opinion, and went for almost 90 minutes. But the only thing remotely "spiritual" about it was the "Om" at the end, and the instructor even went out of his way to emphasize that it was used only for relaxation and had no religious or spiritual connection.

I said "Yes" but with the understanding that it would be primarily a stretching/balance and perhaps meditative exercise versus anything spiritual. You can meditate without it being faith-based, mental health counselors teach it all the time (i.e., "find your happy place").

What's wrong for exposing kids to the spiritual? I know this is a slippery slope to indoctrination, but I think this is a real problem in our society. I'd wager that more and more often kids experience zero spirituality at home, so what is wrong with it if we are using it to teach kids to better themselves?

Quote:

The concepts of life flows or spirit and whatnot are entirely based on faith and have no scientific backing.

Methinks this might be part of our problem. I personally believe it's very ignorant to think that there is no spirit involved with life. We've all been indoctrinated already to believe that the "spirit" is either the "holy spirit" that knocked up Mary or that thing that leaves your body and goes to heaven or **** when you die. To not acknowledge the "spirit" or "life force" or whatever stupid thing you want to call it that embodies the purpose of life, well, is living in a very dark world. Sometimes we get so blinded by the "magic" of technology that we forget to see the "magic" that actually does exist in the real world.

What's wrong for exposing kids to the spiritual? I know this is a slippery slope to indoctrination, but I think this is a real problem in our society. I'd wager that more and more often kids experience zero spirituality at home, so what is wrong with it if we are using it to teach kids to better themselves?

People will ***** if we teach them the wrong kind of spiritual stuff and we don't have enough money to cover all the different kinds.

It's actually Christian parents ******** that their kids are being taught Hinduism.

Frankly, unless they've got a little statue of Shiva with six arms and the kids are being forced to kneel in front of it, they're overreacting. One specific complaint was that the sun salutation series the kids do involves thanking the sun for providing them warmth. They're not being told to pray to the sun god or anything.

____________________________

FFXI: Catwho on Bismarck: Retired December 2014

Thayos wrote:

I can't understand anyone who skips the cutscenes of a Final Fantasy game. That's like going to Texas and not getting barbecue.

What's wrong for exposing kids to the spiritual? I know this is a slippery slope to indoctrination, but I think this is a real problem in our society. I'd wager that more and more often kids experience zero spirituality at home, so what is wrong with it if we are using it to teach kids to better themselves?

People will ***** if we teach them the wrong kind of spiritual stuff and we don't have enough money to cover all the different kinds.

Teaching about religion and spirituality in the context of human history is important. Making any factual or truth-based statement about the existence of a spirit or a god or spirituality is no long providing an education that is free of religion indoctrination.

The 'wrong stuff' is a matter of opinion, as is the 'right stuff' - people should ***** if their public schools are providing spiritual guidance.

What's wrong for exposing kids to the spiritual? I know this is a slippery slope to indoctrination, but I think this is a real problem in our society. I'd wager that more and more often kids experience zero spirituality at home, so what is wrong with it if we are using it to teach kids to better themselves?

People will ***** if we teach them the wrong kind of spiritual stuff and we don't have enough money to cover all the different kinds.

Teaching about religion and spirituality in the context of human history is important. Making any factual or truth-based statement about the existence of a spirit or a god or spirituality is no long providing an education that is free of religion indoctrination.

The 'wrong stuff' is a matter of opinion, as is the 'right stuff' - people should ***** if their public schools are providing spiritual guidance.

What Elinda said.

I have no problem with people holding spiritual beliefs, but it is not the place of a public school to teach children about some non-scientific and controversial concept of spirituality. (outside of, say, a world religions class).

Quote:

I personally believe it's very ignorant to think that there is no spirit involved with life... To not acknowledge the "spirit" or "life force" or whatever stupid thing you want to call it that embodies the purpose of life, well, is living in a very dark world.

I'm an atheist (or an agnostic atheist, if you want to be technical about it), and while I respect your personal belief that there's some kind of unidentifiable, invisible yet omnipresent spirit, I don't think your personal belief should be taught in school. I also would like to point out that not "acknowledging" your concept of a spirit or some divine purpose to life hasn't made the world dark at all; on the contrary, it means we have hope of eventually understanding our universe and that's frankly exciting to me

Teaching about religion and spirituality in the context of human history is important. Making any factual or truth-based statement about the existence of a spirit or a god or spirituality is no long providing an education that is free of religion indoctrination.

The 'wrong stuff' is a matter of opinion, as is the 'right stuff' - people should ***** if their public schools are providing spiritual guidance.

Couldn't agree more, but it doesn't seem to work that way, and I'd rather they spend the money hiring a couple more teachers than fighting some stupid lawsuit. School budgets are tight enough without the self-inflicted problems.

Why is there no "Who gives a ****?" option in the poll? I want that one.

____________________________

Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

Theophany wrote:YOU'RE AN ELITIST @#%^ AETHIEN, NO WONDER YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND PEOPLE HATE YOU. someproteinguy wrote:Aethien you take more terrible pictures than a Japanese tourist. Astarin wrote:One day, Maz, you'll learn not to click on anything Aeth links.

And of course, it is the same people who complain about keeping the Christ in Christmas in our public schools who are moaning about yoga being too otherly spiritual... Blerg. In other words, sky is blue, earth is round and nothing ever changes.

____________________________

lolgaxe wrote:

When it comes to sitting around not doing anything for long periods of time, only being active for short windows, and marginal changes and sidegrades I'd say FFXI players were the perfect choice for politicians.